Vijayawada to become plastic-free soon

Vijayawada: In order to make the city free from plastic waste and polythene covers menace, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) intensified efforts and installed plastic waste collection and recycling plant at Ajit Singh Nagar. The machinery in the plant will perform various types of functions like segregation of hard and soft plastic, grinding the hard plastic into small pieces and produce the waste plastic into hard pieces.

The VMV is operating the recycling plant with the help of United Nations Development Project. The VMC is collecting 500 tonnes of garbage every day and shifting it to dumping yards located in Ajit Singh Nagar and Patapadu, Nunna. So far, lakhs of tonnes of garbage including waste plastic materials piled up at Ajit Singh Nagar dumping yard causing environmental damage to the area for over two decades.

Now, the VMC is using the recycling plant to convert waste plastic into hard plastic pieces that can be reused for making pipelines and other plastic material. M M Asar, Chief Functionary Officer of the plant told The Hans India only 10 cities in India have such plastic recycle plants and it is the only plant in two Telugu states. Asar said the hard plastic will be broken into pieces in a fraction of seconds in the grinder and customers will come to purchase the broken pieces. He added the VMC is preparing in a big way to dismantle the waste plastic.

He stated the waste plastic will be divided into six categories depending on quality, thickness and other chemical parameters and would be converted into hard plastic pieces for the sale. Municipal Commissioner J Nivas said the VMC was facing a challenging task in elimination of plastic from the dumping yard.

He said efforts were on to collect the waste plastic from all parts of the city and shift to Ajit Singh Nagar duping yard to dispose it off on scientific basis without causing environmental damage. Cement companies and plastic manufacturers are ready to buy the hard-plastic pieces known as Gattis made in the recycle plant, he stated. Once the equipment installed fully, he said the plant will speed up the process of dismantling waste plastic and make Vijayawada free from waste plastic menace.